


infirmities of human nature

by orphan_account



Series: ace laurens [2]
Category: American Revolution RPF, Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Allergies, Christmas, M/M, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 07:24:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5488688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It all starts with the mistletoe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	infirmities of human nature

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is for marnie, who is the most loving, caring, selfless friend anyone could ask for, and the kindest, most compassionate human being i know. merry christmas my darling, i love you to pieces!!
> 
> although it isn't mentioned explicitly, in this fic laurens is ace, peggy is genderfluid and eliza is trans. yay for representation!!

_"We all love you sincerely; but I have more of the infirmities of human nature, than the others, and suspect my self of being bypassed by my partiality for you."_ \- Hamilton to Laurens, June 30, 1780

 

 

***

 

 

When asked about the incident afterwards, Alex will say that he was trying to be romantic. His boyfriend _was_ spending the Christmas break with him, after all. It was their first Christmas together, and that meant Alex wanted it to be special - it's not his fault things didn't go according to plan. (Okay, maybe it is. Just a little.)

It all starts with the mistletoe. 

Alex enlists Eliza and Peggy on one of their days off from the cafe to help him set up the decorations. He'd never been one for Christmas before moving to New York - he supposes it has something to do with the snow. The awful, dreadful snow that gives him a head cold twice a month (which isn't all too bad, since John is always there to fix him up again) and yet inspires a sort of childish joy in him that he hasn't felt since before his mother died. It probably also has a lot to do with John himself. Alex's boyfriend hasn't been home for any holiday since he came out to his parents, and lately has been looking down because of it, so Alex is determined to make this Christmas a good memory for the both of them to hold onto. Except - 

"Jesus Christ, Alex, are you planning on going  _swimming_ in all this tinsel?"

\- he may have gone a little overboard.

"No," he says defensively, crossing his arms over his chest. Peggy is looking disbelievingly at the bags of decorations laid out on all available surfaces in the apartment, while Eliza has her hands on her hips and is glaring right at him. "I just - didn't know what to get, so I got everything?" 

"Right." Peggy rolls up their sleeves and surveys the damage. "How much time til John gets home from his shift again?"

Alex checks his watch. "An hour and a half." Peggy's mouth thins into a straight line.

"Let's get started, then."

All in all, decorating the apartment takes about an hour and twenty five minutes. The tree is assembled (Alex didn't have time to get a real one, much to his chagrin), strewn with fairy lights and tinsel, and sprayed with fake snow that gets up Alex's nose and has him sneezing non-stop for ten minutes. Fairy lights are strung around the walls as well, a wreath is placed on the door and mistletoe is hung up in strategic positions above every available doorway. It doesn't look half bad, truth be told, although the lack of colour coordination in the tinsel is a little on the nose, but Alex is sure John won't mind.

He hustles the Schuylers out of the apartment once preparations are complete - "you owe us one, Hamilton!" Peggy calls over their shoulder - and does a quick change into the nicest ugly Christmas sweater he could find. Eliza said the colour brings out his eyes. 

Not a minute later, he hears the stomp of someone coming up the stairs who can only be John. Alex tries to smooth down his hair (a lost cause) and stands awkwardly in the middle of the room as John unlocks the door and walks inside, stopping short at the sight of Alex and all his Christmas splendour.

"Wh -" he begins to say, stepping further into the apartment and shutting the door behind him, but before Alex can say a word John once again halts abruptly in the doorway and glances upward, looking right at the mistletoe that is dangling from the ceiling and is now brushing the tip of John's nose.

"Too much?" Alex says weakly, but John doesn't reply. In fact, John jerks away from the mistletoe as if burned and stares at Alex in something akin to horror. "John, what -" Alex once again stops short at the sight of John, whose face looks almost red under the fairy lights - except it's not almost red, it  _is_ red, and it's spreading, and suddenly Alex realises that he has made a terrible, no good, horrible, bad mistake. "You're allergic, aren't you?" he asks, and John gives him a  _no duh_ look. "Is it - serious?" 

"Call an ambulance," John rasps out, except it sounds more like  _caaaambulaaaa._ Alex swears and dials 911, thanking every deity under the sun (and John's kill-or-be-killed apartment hunting genius) that the apartment is only a couple of blocks away from the hospital. 

"Ambulance - hi, yeah, my boyfriend, he's allergic to mistletoe and having a reaction - John Laurens, he's an intern at the hospital - I'm Alexander Hamilton, we live together, apartment 16C -" Alex rattles off the rest of the address as he falls to his knees beside John, who is as bright red as the day Alex first said  _I love you,_ but who gives Alex a weak thumbs up as if to say  _not dead yet._ Alex hangs up the phone and takes John's hands, sliding his fingers around until they loosely circle John's wrists, and begins to rub soothing circles into the pulse points.

"I'm so sorry," he whispers into John's hair, kissing the top of his scalp and feeling tears prick at his eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just wanted to do something special and I fucked it up. I'm so sorry, J."

The paramedics arrive a few minutes later and carry John out on a stretcher, Alex right behind them. The ride in the ambulance is the worst Alex has felt since punching John in the face, all those months ago. He stares at his boyfriend, now unconscious, and wishes he had done things differently. How stupid could he have been? Why the hell didn't he ask John about his allergies? That's the kind of thing boyfriends should know about each other, right?

He says as much aloud, but John doesn't answer, and the paramedics ignore him. So instead, Alex clutches at his boyfriend's hand, squeezing until it hurts, and tells him _I love you, I love you,_ over and over until they reach the hospital, until Alex loses count.

 

 

***

 

 

Alex is dozing in the visitor chair when John's raspy voice saying his name jolts him awake. He jerks his head up, grin unfolding across his face, to see his boyfriend looking at him blearily from the hospital bed, dozy and confused like when he first wakes up of a morning.

"Hey," Alex says softly, scooting closer and taking John's hand again. "How're you feeling?"

John tries to sit up and groans. "Like a battalion of soldiers just walked over my grave." He squints at Alex, brow furrowed in that cute way he has when he's trying to remember something. Alex wants to reach over and smooth the creases out, but he also doesn't want to let go of John's hand. "What - what happened? I remember coming home and -" John's eyes widen slightly and Alex feels himself flush with shame. 

"I'm so sorry," he says again for the millionth time. "It's our first Christmas together and I wanted to make it special but - I fucked up, I put mistletoe everywhere, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry," he says again, because he can't seem to stop the words from slipping out. "I'm -"

John reaches out and places two gentle fingers over Alex's lips, swallowing his words. Even dosed up on painkillers, he stares at Alex with such a strong clarity of gaze that Alex falls a little bit more in love with him then and there. "It wasn't your fault, baby girl," John says softly, fingers still on Alex's lips. "You didn't mean to do it, so there's nothing to apologise for. If anything, _I_  should apologise to  _you_ for not telling you I was allergic. It just slipped my mind.  _I'm_ sorry." John's fingers fall from Alex's lips, only for his hand to slide around and cup Alex's jaw. "Besides," he continues with a grin, "I don't need mistletoe to convince me to kiss you." He shifts up on his elbow as Alex bends down, their lips meeting in the middle, and it's the closest to perfection Alex has ever felt.

"I love you," John tells him as they break apart. "But since I'm stuck in hospital and you seem convinced that it's all your fault - some Jell-O would be nice?" Alex rolls his eyes at that, but gives his boyfriend another peck on the lips before getting to his feet and heading off in search of strawberry-flavoured jelly.

**Author's Note:**

> having no allergies myself i have absolutely no idea how allergic reactions work. can people be allergic to mistletoe? WHO KNOWS? it seemed a good fic idea at the time.


End file.
